5 Mistakes In The Dark Knight That Prove Even Masterpieces Have Flaws

It’s been ten years (feeling old yet?) since The Dark Knight was released in cinemas. As probably the best Batman film ever made, we can surely assume that the film has been scrutinized by the most eagle-eyed fans of the franchise. Now, we tend to believe that film masterpieces are perfectly crafted and that this is what grants it that prestigious label. However, as we’ve seen in the history of the industry, even the best films ever made have made at least one mistake. In my humble opinion, these errors, instead of ruining the film (as many would claim), just add something to the film that makes them perfectly flawed. Nolan’s take on the franchise, of course, falls into this category. So, without further ado, in case you’re not one of those fussy fans, here are some of the film’s mistakes that just make it more awesome.

You only need a set of weapons and a professional cameraman to start a gang

Right after the iconic Joker has blown the hospital up and is walking away with all the sass in the world, we see him jumping on a school bus. As the bus starts moving, we can see through the window a cameraman taking a close-up of the Joker. Well… we know that if you have followers it’s because they love you, but filming everything? Now, it’s true that in the movie there are some reporters at the scene that eventually get on the bus, but later on, Nolan explained that he had a camera inside to take a shot of the Joker for a close-up scene that he ended up not including in the movie.

Disappearing body

In the opening scene where the Joker and his gang are robbing Gotham National Bank with the school bus, we see how he shoots one of his chums. He falls dead right next to the bus, but later, when the Joker returns to the scene, the body is no longer there. Not to mention that in a matter of seconds the Joker switches a gun in his left hand for a bag filled with money.

Careless continuity much?

In what’s considered one of the pivotal scenes of the film, we have a clear case of careless continuity, which, to be honest, doesn’t really affect anything of the intense shot. We have Batman and the Joker in the interrogation room. Do you remember? Well, at some point Batman takes the Joker from his vest and slams him into a tiled pillar. Well, right in one part of the sequence when we’re looking at the Joker, you see that the impact broke some tiles. However, when the camera focuses on both of them, the cracks are magically repaired. That’s not all, they also missed the position of the Joker’s hands which switch unnaturally in a matter of a second.

Cameramen deserve to be seen

We’ve already seen the case of the cameraman inside the bus. Now, let’s go back to the opening scene; as we approach the bank’s building through a panoramic shot, we see that all of a sudden one of the many windows breaks. In a matter of seconds, we get to see reflected on the windows the helicopter with a cameraman filming all the action. But that’s not all: in the scene we mentioned in the previous point, the interrogation room one, as if the continuation flaws weren’t enough, right on the right window we can see another of our elusive secondary characters.

Can fire disintegrate a van?

After District Attorney Harvey Dent falsely confesses to being Batman, he’s arrested and taken to jail. He’s in an armored police van escorted by other police vehicles when the Joker appears, blocking their way with a set of trailers. All of a sudden, Batman appears to stop the Joker, but from frame to frame we see one of the police cars disappearing in seconds, as it happens in all of these continuity mistakes.

Yes, the movie can have even more mistakes than the ones we’ve mentioned, but even if it had a thousand, we can’t deny that the narrative and the execution was so good that it’s probably the best superhero movie of all time. How are you celebrating its 10-year anniversary?